Chettinad Egg Curry

Make aromatic and super delicious Chettinad Egg Curry with my simple recipe. My family loves the authentic flavors of Chettinad Cuisine and that lead me discover dishes like this one. No same old boring curry with this recipe and I am sure you will love it as much as we do. This Chettinad egg curry goes well with Chapati, Parathas, ghee rice, kuska or plain rice.

Chettinad cuisine is one of the most popular from South India. This traditional cuisine features veg and meat dishes made with a generous amount of spices and raw coconut. Every dish is cooked with a fresh roasted and ground spice paste which elevates everything to top notch.

Some popular dishes from this cuisine include Chicken Chettinad, Chettinad Goat curry and Chettinad Biryani. This recipe is easy to make if you multitask. Roast and blend the spices while you boil the eggs and saute onions tomatoes. This recipe requires whole spices like coriander, cumin, black pepper, dried red chilies, cardamoms, stone flower and fennel seeds. Usually cloves are not used in Chettinad cuisine, but I use them here.

These spices are roasted with raw coconut meat and ground with cashews or poppy seeds. However if raw coconut is not your thing, simply blend the spices with thick coconut milk (at room temperature, not cold). Poppy seeds are traditional to the cuisine but they are not available in the country I live so I replace them with cashews.

This Chettinad Egg Curry has some texture to the gravy and that comes from using chopped onions and retaining them without pureeing. However if you want everything smooth, simply saute the onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic and puree everything with the roasted spices & cashews. You have a super smooth sauce which can be simmered with water until thick and aromatic.

Photo Guide

How to make Chettinad Egg Curry (stepwise photos)

1. Boil eggs in a pot of water and a tablespoon of vinegar. Discard the hot water and rest them in cold water for 5 to 10 mins. Peel them and prick with a fork.

2. The key to making this chettinad spice powder is roasting them right without burning else they can impart a bitter taste. Heat a pan and dry roast red chilies and coriander seeds on a low to medium heat. If your red chilies turn crisp at any time during this process set them aside.

3. Add green cardamom, saunf, cumin, pepper corn, cloves, stone flower and cinnamon stick. Roast lightly on a low flame, make sure the spices do not get over roasted else they will taste bitter.

4. Add coconut and roast until it smells good, for 2 mins. Transfer to a plate and cool these completely. Meanwhile toast poppy seeds in the same pan until crunchy. I used cashews so did not have to toast them. Add the poppy seeds or cashews to a grinder.

5. Add the cooled spices also to the grinder and make a fine powder.

6. Pour little water and make a thick paste.

7. This step is optional. Most people like to use roasted eggs in gravy, so just showing it. I do not prefer to reheat cooked eggs. If you like to then proceed with heating a pan with 1 tsp ghee. Saute on a medium flame until golden and sprinkle some salt and chili powder. Set these aside.

8. To the same pan, add more oil and heat up. Add mustard seeds, when they begin to splutter, add the curry leaves.

9. Add finely chopped onions. Saute until golden.

10. Add ginger garlic paste and saute until the raw smell goes off, for about a minute.

11. Add finely chopped or pureed tomatoes.

12. Saute until the moisture from tomatoes evaporate and they lose the raw smell.

13. Add the ground masala and then enough water to make a gravy.

14. Simmer until the gravy becomes thicken & traces of oil appears on top. Add salt and eggs. Simmer for 3 to 4 minutes. Turn off and add coriander leaves.

Serve with rice, chapati, ghee rice, biryani or jeera rice.

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